You may have noticed that there has been a delay since the last post on this blog. My apologies, but I have a good reason for it. Some seven weeks ago, I had what in medicine is called a hemorrhagic stroke. I am very lucky in several respects: the stroke happened in my house in Dublin at about 9.45 pm on the evening of Thursday 12 January 2023, so my wife Jacqui was sitting with me while we watched TV together; Jacqui had the foresight to call for an ambulance immediately; my house is less than ten minutes drive away from one of Dublin’s finest hospitals, St James’s; and a skilled medical ambulance crew arrived within about 20 minutes. I remember the two crewmen asking questions and that I was able to speak to them. To be honest, I don’t remember a lot after that, except that I was taken to James’s and, after initial treatment, on to Beaumont Hospital, and then a few days later back to James’s.

I have been in hospital for almost seven weeks altogether, and have received what can only be described as top-class treatment by the Irish medical service. Last weekend, I was allowed home for three nights for the first time, and hope to be allowed home permanently before the end of this week. I will be writing more about this in due course on my personal blog, and will add a link here when it’s complete.

However, I would now like to announce here the project I had been working on since last summer, my new book, Guy Gibson and his Dambuster Crew, to be published later this year by The History Press. Because of all the new information that emerged during my research, I didn’t finish the final draft until the middle of December 2022 (some two months after the original date agreed!) and my editor Amy Rigg and I then agreed that publication would take place in September 2023. Here is the publisher’s page. 

I will write more about this new book next week, so please keep an eye on this blog. (Go to the Follow Blog By Email link opposite to get an automatic notice whenever there is a new post on this blog.)